Tributes for Hillsborough

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Floral tributes from Liverpool football club representatives are pictured beside a memorial listing the names of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. AFP

Tributes will be paid on Sunday to victims of the Hillsborough disaster as Liverpool face arch-rivals Manchester United in an emotionally charged match.

The Premier League clash at Liverpool's Anfield stadium is Liverpool's first home game since their supporters were cleared of involvement in the 1989 disaster in which 96 of their fans were crushed to death.

Senior players and the managers of both teams have appealed for fans to show respect amid fears that the tensions which always accompany the meeting of England's two most successful teams will spill over.

United manager Alex Ferguson took the unusual step of writing to his club's fans ahead of the match saying that their intense rivalry "should never be based on personal hatred".

The long-awaited independent probe into what happened at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium absolved Liverpool supporters of any responsibility for the disaster, and was heavily criticial of the police.

It found that the accounts of some officers had been changed in an attempt to deflect blame on to the Liverpool fans.

The report was the result of a long campaign for justice by relatives of the dead after the police at the time blamed drunken fans for causing the overcrowding which led to the disaster.

Tributes will be paid to the victims, with mosaics formed by supporters around the stadium spelling out "The Truth", "96" and "Justice".

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard will instruct striker Luis Suarez to shake hands before the match with United's Senegalese-born French international Patrice Evra whom he racially abused in the equivalent fixture last season.

"Those two players could be the key," he said. "That's going to be at the beginning of the game, the handshake, and if it goes ahead then they've got a responsibility to start the day off on a good note."

Gerrard's own cousin, 10-year-old Jon-Paul Gilhooley, was the youngest fan to die in the disaster at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Asked what he was like, Gerrard, 32, said: "Same as me -- a Liverpool fan from a council estate, used to love his footie, used to love a kickaround in the street. Exactly the same as me, a year older."

Gerrard made his own call for calm, saying: "I'm sure the Liverpool and Manchester United fans know what the right thing to do is.

"There's a big game of football and a lot at stake at the weekend. But this is more important than football, what we're talking about."

As fans gathered ahead of the 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) kickoff, flowers were laid at a memorial to the dead and one Manchester United supporter attached a United shirt to the railings.

On it was written: "For the Hillsborough families. Justice at last."

In the wake of the damning report, the British government is examining the possibility of holding new inquests into the 96 deaths at Hillsborough which could led to prosecutions of senior police officers.

AFP

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